NEET exam centres in Tamil Nadu up from 210 to 520: School education minister

CHENNAI: In an attempt to spare medical aspirants the trouble of travelling to other states to write National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), Tamil Nadu has more than doubled the number of exam centres.


From 210 in 2018, it has been increased to 520 this year, said K A Sengottaiyan , state school education minister .

"Required infrastructure has been made available for students in all these centres as per Centre's guidelines. Last year, 1.17 lakh candidates wrote NEET. There will be no issues even if more than 1.50 lakh take it up this year," he said.

Last year, there were not enough centres in Tamil Nadu which forced students to travel to far away places like Jaipur in Rajasthan to write the test.

In another development, Sengottaiyan said Rs 248 crore has been released towards reimbursements for 25% admissions made in private matriculation schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009. Samagara Shiksha Abhiyan, nodal agency for implementing RTE effectively, has started distributing funds to schools in Ariyalur from Thursday, he said.

Responding to questions on Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), the minister said preparatory works were underway and exam dates will be announced next week. This will act as a major relief for more than 8,000 private matriculation school teachers and teaching aspirants in Tamil Nadu who are yet to clear TET.

The government came under criticism for delay in notifying the exam. Private school teachers would have lost an opportunity to make themselves eligible for handling classes if the test was not notified and conducted before March 31.

Any teacher handling classes for students from Class I to VIII should clear TET conducted by the government, according to RTE Act. Applications for the test will be available from March 15 to April 5.